How to mark items as complete in Reminders on iPhone and iPad

The built-in Reminders app makes for a great way to keep you on task and organized. Once you've learned how to create reminders, you can view them at any time on your iPhone and iPad. Then, when you complete them, you can just as easily mark them as complete so they disappear from your Reminders app.

Not sure how? Follow along.

Launch the Reminders app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.

Find the item that you'd like to mark as complete.

You'll notice a little check box to the left of it. Tap on it.

You'll now notice that the item is marked as complete and it will disappear from that list.

If you ever need to view it again or you tap on the wrong reminder to mark as complete, you can restore it or view it again from the completed list within the Reminders app.

Reader comments

How to mark items as complete in Reminders on iPhone and iPad

I find Reminders through iCloud is pretty flaky. I will mark something as complete on the iPhone, and later have to mark it again on the iPad or on icloud.com. It also doesn't always disappear unless I change reminder lists and come back to it. Also, recurring reminders sometimes set bizarre dates when completed....for instance, if I set a reminder to remind me every Wed at 8pm, and mark it as complete, sometimes it'll set the next one up to remind me at Mon at noon. The sync is really poor - and needs work. If I mark something as done, I want it done. I don't want to see it again unless I go looking for it in the completed section. With that, I kind of fall in line with Rene's take that 2013 will be the year they MUST focus on iCloud. I know sync is hard, but these are interface shortfalls that Apple must understand. And yes, I've provided this feedback through Apple's iCloud feedback page.

Is this a joke article? An entire article on how to tick a checkmark in an app?

Personally, I find Reminders has been ruined since the first update where they changed the list behaviour from swiping to tapping. If you have more than one list it's now so awkward to switch between them that it's hardly worth booting up the app at all.

I don't find it as a joke. Allyson tends to submit articles that everyone from iOS novices to experienced folks can use. I think the idea here is to make iOS even more approachable than it already is. I find all her articles informative.

This exactly. I cover everything from very beginner things to how to completely tear apart your devices. Right now, we are working on rounding out basic features. After that, intermediate stuff will start up again.

I get lots of emails from people specifically asking for this kind of stuff because they have relatives or parents or even grandparents with iPhones that have no idea what to do, let alone how to create a reminder and utilize the full functionality. Which is why we do this, and then round them up into huge guides on reminders, siri, icloud, notes, messages, etc...

Please don't take this the wrong way. I love how to tips and tricks, but really? How to mark items as completed in Reminders?

If this were posted on a blog specifically for beginners, I could see it being useful. However, this is posted on iMore.com. How many computer neophytes are going to be reading this blog?

Who is this post written for? Me? Of all my relatives that are not computer savvy, none of them would even know that this site exists and if they had a question of how to do something like this, they would ask either myself, my wife or my cousin who actually do know something about computers before they would ask Google.com or other search engine how to do it.

Actually, we do get quite a lot of beginner users. A lot of times they are referred from other relatives. I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten saying someone referred a relative new to iOS to iMore and now they read it every day for the beginner tips. It goes both ways. Google and referrals/word of mouth.

imore.com/tips houses everything including more advanced tips & tricks. once we finish up reminders, we probably will go to something more intermediate to advanced again. but we tend to rotate different topics. reminders just happens to be a beginner topic.

Fair enough! :) I had forgotten about imore.com/tips. There is a vast catalog of video tips that you all have created. It just seems like this tip is as basic as: "How to wake your iPhone... Press the Home button or the Sleep/Wake button, then slide your finger across the "Slide to Unlock" control." However, I can see a place for even that kind of tip.